Hamburg, Germany, August 24, 2017 - After being upset in their first match here Wednesday at the US$800,000 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Finals, Chantal Laboureur and Julia Sude of Germany rallied with a three-set win over Kristyna Kolocova and Michala Kvapilova of Czech Republic to win their pool.
Seeded first in the third annual SWATCH FIVB World Tour Finals, Laboureur and Sude scored a 2-1 (21-8, 19-21, 15-12) win in 41 minutes over the ninth-seeded Kolocova and Kvapilova to win Pool A due to a better point ratio that the Czech pair and ninth-seeded Joana Heidrich and Anouk Vergé-Dépré of Switzerland
All three teams tied with a 1-1 mark in pool play as Heidrich and Vergé-Dépré defeated the Germans Wednesday before losing Thursday morning to Kolocova and Kvapilova 2-0 (22-20, 21-10) in 37 minutes.
Laboureur and Sude's point ratio was 1.036 with the Czech 0.988 and the Swiss 0.973. All three teams in Pool A advance to Friday's elimination round where Laboureur and Sude have earned a "bye" into the quarter-finals for a guaranteed fifth-place finish in the event.